The TVAD Research Group, based in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Hertfordshire, researches relationships between text, narrative and image. We publish books, journal articles, host a double-blind peer-reviewed journal, Writing Visual Culture (previously Working Papers on Design) and host events including international conferences.

Monday, 23 May 2016

For those
of a certain age (and one could argue class), Kent Walton’s welcome will evoke
the routine of Saturday tea-time’s in front of the TV, anticipating an exciting
45mins of grapples, grunts, and the ubiquitous incensed Granny scolding a
wrestler. While wrestling was first broadcast on newly launched ITV station in
1955, its established slot (just before the football scores) came about with the
launch of World of Sport a decade
later in 1965, and would last for 24 years before being axed by the then
Director of Programmes, Greg Dyke, in 1989. The magazine format sports show was
originally intended as a direct response to BBC’s Grandstand, and ‘The Wrestling’ became a central feature of its
programming. Part sport, part entertainment, at its peak wrestling garnered
audiences of over 12 million, and the new commercial station seemed like a fitting
home for a pastime that had emerged from the traditions of the music hall. Yet,
in many ways, the balance between these two areas was always an uncertain one,
and the pull towards celebrity and spectacle that the commercial element of the
sport demanded, would eventually be wrestling’s downfall (at least in the UK).

Grunts & Grapples seeks to explore this much
neglected area of social and cultural history. It is drawn primarily from my
own personal collection of posters, photographs, programmes, and a handful of
wrestling outfits. The aim of the exhibition is very much one of capturing how
central the sport was to British life for most of the second half of the
twentieth century and how it drew on earlier traditions of public entertainment.
For example, in terms of design, there are various billposters, which in style
reveal wrestling’s origins in the aforementioned music hall tradition, but also
to those of the circus. The influence of these two forms of popular culture ran
throughout the sport, from the portrayal of the wrestlers as baddies (‘heals’)
or goodies (‘blue eyes’), to the widespread encouragement of audience
participation. In terms of the wrestlers themselves, prevailing narratives of
Otherness and racial stereotypes would commonly be utilised in the creation of personalities.
Hence, you would have Johnny Kincaid and Dave Bond wrestling under the name the
‘Caribbean Sunshine Boys’, although as Kincaid noted in a recent BBC
documentary, he had never been further than Wandsworth! Other such figures
included the supposed Native American ‘Billy Two Rivers’ who would perform an
“Indian” dance before each bout. And most famously, Kendo Nagasaki, who drew on
popular imagery of ‘Japan’, in his use of Samurai swords and distinctive masks,
all of which were frequently embellished by Kent Walton’s commentary on
Nagasaki’s ‘mysterious origins’. This Otherness served as a uncomplicated signifier
of badness, while in this crude worldview, ‘whiteness’ functioned as shorthand
for decency and righteousness. Not that this binary was fixed, as there were
many wrestlers who throughout their career switched from a ‘heal’ to a
‘blue-eye’ and back again. This play of characters across the hundreds of
venues that hosted the wrestling during the week, and on the TV screens on a
Saturday afternoon, was a carefully choreographed storyline, with long running
grudges, feuds, and resentments. All of which were stage managed by the
wrestling promoter Joint Promotions, who held a near monopoly on the sport
during the period Grunts & Grapples
explores (1955 – 1990).

When ITV’s
broadcasting of wrestling was cancelled in 1989, one of the arguments appeared
to be that the contrived storylines, larger than life characters, and
manufactured bouts – the entertainment side of wrestling’s heritage - had overshadowed
the sporting aspect. For many, the protracted battle between Big Daddy and
Giant Haystacks throughout the 1980s served as prima facieevidence
in the case for the prosecution. Judged as a mockery of ‘real’ wrestling – with
the notorious 1981 Wembley clash contest lasting just 2mins 30secs – many fans
and wrestlers alike considered the absence of skill and technique a step too
far. With the arrival of Sky TV and the import of World Wrestling Federation (WWF)
from America, it appeared such opinions were shared by Greg Dyke. Following its
cancellation, wrestling continued in town halls and seaside piers well into the
1990s, but it never loomed as large in the public consciousness as it had throughout
the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

Wednesday, 18 May 2016

As a second year student on the DHeritage
programme, I am still far from clear about my research question. So, when I was
invited to give a TVAD talk, it was a good opportunity to think about where I was in the process, and how my research so far is beginning to
collect around topics of interest.

As a professional doctoral student, my
research is closely aligned to my practice as a corporate film-maker and broadcast
journalist, so I tried to bring the two things together as a starting point, by looking at the heritage of radio and TV news.

From an outsider’s perspective, I would
suggest that the heritage of TV news is its archive: the news broadcasts, on
the spot reports and coverage of historic events, and this archive most
definitely has a value. Every broadcaster has a department dedicated to selling
the reuse of these assets.

But from my point of view, there is
something just as important behind the scenes that is less obvious as ‘heritage’.
The stories that have made up my career have come from production in the
newsroom, using the most up-to-date technology available (and affordable) to
bring the news to the radio waves and TV screen.

So, I started to look at the machines I used to work with every day.

What is interesting about looking again at
these machines is that they sparked off memories about the way we used to make the
news, and I started to think about the things that have changed, and the things that haven’t.

I remembered what it was like to edit using
razor blades and splicing tape, and how everyone who has ever cut tape has the
same semi-circular scar on their thumb from the time when they were in a rush,
decided not to put the tape into the editing block, and ended up embedding the
razor blade in their thumb, which resulted in even more panic as they tried to
get their report on air without bleeding on it.

Or the time when the beta-cart machine
chewed up a report on tape, leaving me with a minute-long black hole in my
bulletin. To add to that, the autocue also failed while we were on-air. When
the presenter tried to read the ‘spare’ stories from the printed scripts to
make up the lost time due to the tape being chewed, he found that the printer
was short on ink and had not printed them legibly. So, he had nowhere to go,
and wrapped up the bulletin, leaving us sitting on the ‘end slate’ of the
weather for a full minute – the longest minute of my professional career.

Those memories were attached to these
obsolete machines, that are in themselves not valued in any way except by
collectors of niche technology, and rarely exhibited as heritage objects. But
to me, those machines are a vital element of the heritage story of me and my colleagues, as the technology we used shaped and affected the way we brought
the news to the listener or viewer.

Because these machines are obsolete, my own
heritage - news programmes I have worked on and reports I have
done - are inaccessible, because they are stored on reel-to-reel tape, Beta SP
and video tape, none of which I can access without seeking out someone who
keeps and uses these technical relics of newsrooms past.

This led me to think that this will
probably soon be true of CDs, and perhaps even USB sticks and hard drives. So, thinking
about technology from a perspective of heritage collections, could it be that
museums and archives are better off with pre-digital systems such as card
catalogues, because these have remained accessible for many years without becoming obsolete, since
we can simply copy the information onto new cards when they get old and hard to
read. Is technology really helpful at all for holding and accessing data in the
heritage sector?

And, thinking about the old technologies
that are now considered obsolete, what formerly vital machines and technologies
are mouldering away in the back rooms of museums and archives, no longer
considered of any value? What heritage stories might be attached to these?

My research question centres around
digitisation, looking at how putting collections online may have altered the work of the heritage professional, and the way they communicate with the outside world. I would like to look at the way technology has both helped and hindered heritage professionals with their work, and will ask them to reflect on how the rapid rise of the internet has changed their practice, and the way they present their collections.

Tuesday, 17 May 2016

As TVAD Visiting Researcher for 2015-16, my three
weeks at the University of Hertfordshire in February seemed to fly by. After
the initial shock of acclimatising from a hot Australian summer to an English
winter, I settled into a busy program of events. Everyone I met at UH was
friendly and I soon found that starting each morning in the café meant I would
run into someone I’d met previously – intentional or not, the centrally placed
café was well designed for a visitor to get to know people! As for the more formal
program, over a period of three weeks, I presented lectures on contemporary art
in Melbourne, modern Asian design and global design to students and staff
across the art and design departments. I also reviewed Interior Architecture
student work-in-progress, went to the opening of the Postgraduate
Interdisciplinary Exhibition and participated in the postgraduate DHeritage
Workshop.

Cumberland Lodge

For me, one of the highlights of my time with UH was
attending the History Department Annual Conference at Cumberland Lodge, over
the weekend of 12-14 February. The location, a grand 17th century country house
on the grounds of Windsor Great Park, was appropriately historic. The program
of presentations, though varied, had two provocative threads. The first was a
debate about historical agency, or, a series of questions around how we might
recover the stories of everyday people – beyond kings, queens and “famous” individuals,
researchers in history are working on issues such as the autonomy of 19th
century working class women, for example. A number of the presenters focused on
such finely nuanced histories that sought to give voice to “ordinary” individuals.

Windsor Great Park and Cumberland Lodge

The second provocative theme was the impact of new
technologies on history. From analyses of “big data” such as population or
environmental statistics to crowd-sourcing information, the “digital humanities”
approach to historical research presents numerous new avenues for research. Perhaps
because of the emphasis on statistics, information and data, the new approach
seemed a little at odds with the more traditional, archival research presented
at the conference. It may also be that the individual voices tend to get lost
in such big picture analyses. Finally, both the surrounds of Cumberland Great
Lodge and the chance to walk around Windsor Great Park rounded off a great weekend.

I managed to squeeze in a day trip up to Norwich where Dr Grace Lees-Maffei treated me to a wintery English walk (complete with ankle-deep mud) and a day at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. I had read about Norman Foster's large hanger-like construction for the Sainsbury Centre- one of hisearliest designs - so it was good to finally see it. There was also an excellent exhibition of Alphonse Mucha's posters, paintings and graphics (no photos allowed though!).

Heritage was a topic I spent a lot of time pondering
while at UH. In fact, heritage was something I felt like I couldn’t escape while
in the UK. Even turning on the TV at night, I saw several documentaries on heritage
topics such as railways, canals and historic homes. For me, it was therefore a great
opportunity to participate in the University of Hertfordshire DHeritage workshop.
This was a chance to hear postgraduate students’ projects and perspectives on
heritage and to understand a little about heritage as a practice in the UK (and
globally). A starting point for understanding
heritage – a shared past, protected for all to remember – soon became more
complex with questions such as which past should we protect? How should we
protect it and whose past is it anyway? From the many questions that emerged, I
left with the idea of heritage as a contested, dynamic and contemporary practice.

A sign warning motorists of the high-tech surveillance equipment in operation in Hatfield

Beyond my TVAD Visiting
Researcher trip to Hatfield, I also spent a few days in London at the Victoria
and Albert Museum’s National Art Library and the British Library, as well as a
couple of days in the University of Brighton’s Design Archives. This archival
research and the chance to have another look at the V&A collection provided
invaluable material and ideas for my forthcoming book, Modern Asian Design. Back at UH, I also gained a great deal from an
informal research workshop with Dr Steven Adams and Dr Grace Lees-Maffei in
which I presented some work in progress from the book. Overall, my three weeks in the UK as TVAD
Visiting Researcher was a fantastic opportunity to engage with stimulating ideas
and meet a lot of great people.

Wednesday, 4 May 2016

In 2015 the University of Hertfordshire’s Heritage Hub commissioned
Nick Patrick, the producer of Radio 4’s Making History, to create six
podcasts addressing the value of public history,
heritage, and academic-community partnerships in contemporary society.

The podcasts are based on interviews with a range of academics,
leading heritage and public engagement professionals, and
community-based organisations. They consider the ways historians,
artists, and social scientists conduct and share their research with
people outside the academic community.

They are now being made freely
available thanks to a partnership with the London Centre for Public History. They will be released individually over the next few weeks,
each accompanied by an introduction from a practitioner in the
relevant field.